Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra is a Canadian post-rock band that formed in 1999, originating from Montreal, Quebec. The group uses the shorthand SMZ and its name is most often simplified to Silver Mt. Zion. The group was founded by Efrim Menuck, who was joined by fellow Godspeed members Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar. Aside from these core members, Silver Mt. Zion has undergone almost yearly personnel changes, evolving by stages from a mostly instrumental trio at the time of its first recordings into an eight-piece group, and then in 2008 into a strongly vocal quintet.
The band made its live debut on March 6, 1999, at Musique Fragile, a performance venue organized by the record label Constellation. It released its debut album, ‘He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms’ in March 2000. Godspeed You! Black Emperor rarely features vocals, relying instead on audio samples; similarly themed samples appear on Silver Mt. Zion’s debut album. Menuck does sing on two tracks, “Movie (Never Made)” and “Blown-out Joy from Heaven’s Mercied Hole”. Before the release of its second album, the band recruited three more musicians, expanding the group to a sextet. The new members were cellist Beckie Foon, guitarist Ian Ilavsky, and violinist Jessica Moss. The band’s name was changed to The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band to reflect the larger membership.
In early 2001 the band set out on an extensive tour of Europe. During their 5-hour flight to Europe, the band members wrote “The triumph of our tired eyes”. Soon after their return, the album “Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upwards” was written. With the same lineup, but with the band’s name slightly expanded to reflect the change in sound and membership, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band with Choir released “This Is Our Punk-Rock,” Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing in 2003. The album featured four tracks each over ten minutes and had more singing as well as greater emphasis on drums in two of the tracks. Thee Rusted Satellite Choir features 24 names. The album appeared on the !earshot National Top 50 Chart in September 2003.
The lineup was expanded again to include Gilmore, a mandolinist and guitarist. The choir dropped, and the band added an E to the first word of its name, becoming Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band for the release of its fourth full-length record. Horses in the Sky (2005) has six tracks, all with vocals. Following a short tour of eastern Canada in August that year, the band performed for the first time in the United States in Brooklyn, New York City. Plans for a longer tour were cut short after Trudeau, one of two violinists in the band, broke her collarbone. In that time, Gilmore left the band and was replaced by former Hangedup drummer Eric Craven.
In 2006, the band headed to Europe at the end of April and played shows until the start of June. A tour of Canada and the United States (Silver Mt. Zion’s first) ran from late July to the end of August. The tour debuted two new songs, “BlindBlindBlind” and “1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound”. In a follow-up 2007 tour of Europe, the band premiered two new songs, “Engine Broke” and the title song of its album, which was released in March 2008. In the spring of 2009, the band began working on recording material for its album Kollaps Tradixionales, released in February 2010. The album contained the two new songs from the previous tour, some songs written when it was “tra-la-la band”, and some new compositions.
